Review: West by West (2011)

By Jerry West and Jonathan Coleman

"West by West" is subtitled "My Charmed, Tormented Life." It's fair to say Jerry West isn't kidding with that one.

Yikes.

The former basketball legend, on and off the court, is out with an autobiography. Those looking for a retelling of his exploits should look elsewhere. This is a very human story of the proverbial tormented soul who just happens to be a basketball life. It's fair to say there haven't been many autobiographies like in any part of the bookstore, let alone in sports where few have the guts to let their guard down to put something like this for public view.

Stories of West's odd behavior have come out over the last 30 years or so. There were reports that West couldn't bear to watch the Los Angeles Lakers teams he assembled actually play basketball most of the time. He'd drive around, or go home, or sit in an empty movie theater instead. The logical thought at the time was that West was so competitive that it was difficult for him to watch an event in which he had a vested interest, but had no way of controlling its outcome. This was a man who resigned from a general manager's job with the Lakers, and didn't attend the farewell news conference.

It turns out there was more to the story than that. A lot more.

West reveals here how little love there was in his household growing up, as his father beat him. He tried to take refuge by following his older (by several years) brother, who everyone loved and who went off to Korea and was killed in action. Combine those two developments, and you have enough information to keep a team of psychologists busy for months ... if West had been willing to listen to them for long.

Basketball became a refuge from that life, and he quickly became enveloped in it. He was an All-American at West Virginia, and an All-Pro with the Lakers. You know the NBA's official logo? That's West's image. The superstar made it to one NCAA final and many NBA finals, and lost all but one of them. As Gary Smith pointed out in a fascinating article in Sports Illustrated, today that sort of record would force talk-show callers to come up with new ways of saying "choker." West's nickname in his playing days, though, was "Mr. Clutch," and there was no sarcasm involved.

No matter how brilliant West was, and he certainly was all of that, he always thought he could do more to have helped his team win. Even the great UCLA coach John Wooden tried to convince them that he shouldn't take all the blame for losing since he knew he couldn't take all the credit for winning. West realized Wooden was right, but just couldn't bring himself to make that emotional step.

Those seeking inside basketball stories will find a few here. West provides some on his own, such as the tale about how Laker coach Phil Jackson never talked to West the GM. (Jackson didn't get along with the general manager with the Bulls, and thought it was a good working model apparently.) Co-author Jonathan Coleman also had the chance to talk to several of the key figures in West's basketball life to get their stories about their enigmatic boss. Other voices sometimes don't work well in autobiographies, but these fit in nicely.

Still, this is at root a story of a very human being, with flaws and phobias that any of us might have. Some of us hate surprises, but West is one of the few that, when greeted by a surprise birthday party, would turn around and walk out the door ... and then offer to pay for everything. West says it's wasn't one of his better moments. It's almost tough to read this, and raises all sorts of questions and thoughts in the reader's mind ... and not just about West.

The author says he has reached a tenuous peace with himself, which provides something of a happy ending to the story. West certainly deserves that. Writing a book like this probably wasn't easy -- it took about three years -- but certainly it must have been therapeutic to do it if not downright cathartic. "West by West" will forever change your viewpoint about this basketball legend, and it ranks with the most interesting books of the year.

Five stars

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